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Today marks the second day of StudentsFirstNY’s effort to jumpstart all-but-stalled negotiations on a new evaluation system for New York City.

In an effort to jumpstart all-but-stalled negotiations on a new evaluation system for New York City public school teachers, StudentsFirstNY today launched a “10 Days of $300 Million” campaign to highlight the negative impact of losing these funds.

Education reform coalition urges New York State to implement its Race to the Top pledges on teacher quality and effectiveness.

If union leaders and city officials don't reach a deal on a new teacher evaluation system by Jan 17th, NYC schools will lose $300 million. Our kids need that money and our leaders need to reach an agreement.

Recently StudentsFirstNY asked the Democratic polling firm Anzalone Liszt Research to survey New Yorkers on their views of a new teacher evaluation system. The results could not be more definitive –support for a new teacher evaluation system is robust and resilient throughout the poll.

A new teacher evaluation system that would ensure that New York City received $300 million in additional State education funding enjoys overwhelming support among City voters in general and parents in particular.

While studies have consistently shown that teacher quality is the greatest influencer of a child’s academic success, few systems exist in New York State to influence teacher quality. As a result, it’s difficult to identify, encourage, promote and retain top educators. Teachers are left without constructive feedback regarding their performance, and administrators lack effective measurements for highlighting and rewarding excellence.

On November 17th, more than one hundred parents and students stood on the steps of City Hall to urge the teachers’ union and the Department of Education to agree on a new teacher evaluation system.

Teacher quality matters - extensive research shows that the quality of a student’s teacher is more important than anything else that happens in a school. 

Opponents of charter schools often cite a national study by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) as evidence that charter schools don’t have a significant impact on student achievement. The 2009 CREDO study (PDF) examined charter school performance across 16 states (New York was not included) and found that only 17% of charter schools outperformed traditional public schools, while 37% performed worse.